USC’s student senate passed several pieces of legislation on Oct. 22, including recommendations to reduce the overselling of parking permits and create a Garnet Gate mobile app.
Parking Permits
The senate passed a recommendation to reduce overselling of parking permits. This legislation is sponsored by Vice-Chairwoman Elexa Baldinger and Chairwoman Emma Cumby.
The recommendation referenced a 2024 article from The Daily Gamecock, which reported that over 21,000 parking passes were sold during last year’s fall semester despite only 17,000 spaces being available campus-wide.
For the 2025 to 2026 school year, prices for parking passes range from $125 to $880 and are paid in addition to tuition, according to the recommendation.
Students pay these prices to guarantee themselves a parking spot and be on time for class, but the overselling of parking permits can cause them to search for a spot and be late to class, according to the recommendation.
Baldinger said students are paying for passes that do not necessarily guarantee them a parking spot.
According to the recommendation, this is an ongoing problem for USC with the demand for parking increasing as student enrollment increases.
Garnet Gate Mobile App
The senate also passed a recommendation to create a Garnet Gate mobile app. This legislation is sponsored by Sen. Lester Lewis.
According to the recommendation, Garnet Gate can only be accessed through the web, which is inconvenient for students who rely on their mobile devices for information. Garnet Gate is an essential part of campus involvement at USC, the recommendation said.
Developing a mobile app for Garnet Gate would make the site more accessible and convenient for students, according to the recommendation.
Lewis said other schools, such as Auburn and LSU, have mobile apps for sites similar to Garnet Gate. The development of a mobile app for Garnet Gate would allow USC to catch up with other schools who already have it, Lewis said.
“We’re a little behind, so this is going to bring us up to speed once again,” Lewis said.
According to the recommendation, a mobile app for Garnet Gate would be available for both iOS and Android systems and include features such as a dashboard for student involvement tracking and real-time notifications.
Multilingual options
The senate also passed a recommendation to create multilingual options for USC’s campus resources. This legislation is sponsored by Sens. Gavin Primis and Thomas Spurgeon.
According to the recommendation, USC has enrolled 1,614 international students as of 2022.
These students speak a variety of languages such as Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, Spanish and German, the recommendation said.
“None of our resources were in any other language besides English, so the final legislation is to make our resources more accessible,” Primis said.
Resources being exclusively in English can cause a language barrier for students whose native language is not English, according to the recommendation.
Primis said the goal of the legislation is to update some of the more important campus resources and make them available in more languages.
According to the recommendation, translation tools international students may use to translate English can often be inaccurate. Expanding campus resources to include more languages improves accessibility for international students and their families, the recommendation said.
Recycling in South Quad and East Quad
The senate also passed a recommendation to add recycling bins to South Quad and East Quad. This legislation is sponsored by Chairwoman Abby Goepel.
According to the recommendation, South Quad and East Quad lack recycling options and bins for residents to use, while many other residence halls have recycling options.
South Quad and East Quad house many students, so adding recycling options would create consistency among all housing spaces, according to the recommendation.
Goepel said the two residence halls are the only ones without accessible recycling bins.
Residents often discard recyclable materials as regular waste because of an absence of recycling bins, the recommendation said.
This comes as a response to similar sustainability legislation created by the Residence Hall Association senate to expand recycling on campus in general, Goepel said.
“This is just a recommendation for housing and sustainability to partner up and get those recycling bins,” Goepel said.
Student senate will meet again on Oct. 29 at 5:30 p.m.